Alf Delany competed in the Swallow class at the 1948 London Olympic Games - the first appearance of yachting under Irish colours at the Olympics - finishing 13th of 14 competitors with crew Hugh Allen on The Cloud. From Mohill, County Leitrim, the son of a Longford-town doctor who spent his summers in nearby Tarmonbarry, Delany developed a lifelong love of sailing on the lakes and inland waterways of the midlands at the North Shannon Yacht Club. A medical graduate of Dublin University where he also played first-team hockey, he had established his medical practice in Clontarf at the time of the Games. Swallow class boats were in short supply and Delany tracked one down to George O'Brien-Kennedy, proprietor of one of the first hire-boat fleets on the Shannon; the IYF chartered The Cloud for the competition. He arrived in England equipped with practical campaign supplies: whiskey, a side of ham, ten pounds of butter and bottles of milk. He went on to compete in the Finn class at the 1952 Helsinki Games.
Sailing
